Don’t bet the Ranch

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Ya know I’m getting tired of all the misinformation being circulated about food and it’s time to take a look at one such bit of information. Ranch Dressing. I love Ranch dressing. I love it on sandwiches, salads and hamburgers. I love to dip vegetables in it and use it on pizzas. I also hear all the time from so-called nutrition experts and doctors to stay away from the creamy dressings for your salads and use an olive oil/vinagrette dressing instead. So I decided to take a closer look at both of these to see what is really going on nutrition-wise:

Lets compare 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil with 1 tablespoon of regular Lighthouse Ranch dressing.

The olive oil has 120 calories and the Ranch dressing has 60 calories. Interesting. Each of them is made up from primarily fat calories with olive oil being 100% and the Ranch about 90%. The other 10% are sugar sources from dairy and maltodextrin. So lets take a closer look at the fats in these 2 products since we know that olive oil is almost all the ‘good’ fat we always hear so much about. The Ranch dressing must be mostly saturated fat right? WRONG.

1 tablespoon of Ranch has 6 grams of fat, and only 0.5 of that is saturated fat. 1 tablespoon of the olive oil has 14 grams of fat, 2 of which are saturated. That means 14% of the olive oil is saturated fat and 8% of the fat in the Ranch is saturated. Neither has any trans fat by the way.

So in the end I can put double the amount of Ranch dressing on my salad as I can olive oil and still get less saturated fat and about equal the number of calories. If I put 4 tablespoons of Ranch dressing on my salad I’m also getting 4 grams of carbs which equals 16 calories. WOW. I think my heart is going to explode with all this unhealthy stuff going through my system.

Just in case Lighthouse isn’t reflective of standard common Ranch dressings on the market I decided to check the most common brand I could determine which was Hidden Valley Ranch. The numbers are very similar but the Hidden Valley has about 17% of its fat being saturated which is only slightly higher than olive oil but still nowhere near the runaway health hazard that the media and experts would have us believe.

I Want My Reward

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In building a consistent exercise program it will be important and immensely helpful to reward ourselves for our hard work. Certainly exercise can seem like a chore much of the time and this can easily take over and cause us to make the decision not to exercise at all. Find something appealing about the activity – maybe you like to think about a particular topic and walking helps you to concentrate on that topic. Maybe there is a particular smell you enjoy on your walks or something very appealing to look at such as a beach or a park. Maybe the quiet peaceful morning fog beckons you to go on that meditative like walk or jog. Maybe you have noticed that when you are out there running or walking you can think more clearly and generate ideas much more readily.

Create a reward for yourself upon completion of the activity – maybe a particular breakfast or food item or some play time with your pet or kids. Use these appealing things to get you motivated to go on that walk and build consistency. Over time it will certainly become automatic and then you can start to increase the intensity and frequency of your work-outs.

Project 42 – “Ronnie Lott” – Day 4 – Part II

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Forgot to mention what I’ve been eating…

  • Monday:  Veggie omelet/pistachio nuts/pork chops (fat trimmed off)/green beans.
  • Tuesday:  String cheese/mixed veggies/turkey sando with lettuce as bread, cheese, veggies, hummus.
  • Wednesday:  5 eggs/nuts/2 chicken breasts/green beans/1lb lobster/mixed veggies.
  • Thursday: 4 eggs/pistachio nuts/taco salad with no rice, a little guac and a little cheese.

Lots of Water…

Project 42 – “Ronnie Lott” – Day 4

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Listen to your body!  I got somewhat mixed messages from my body today, but I must interpret the messages correctly…in other words…interpret them in the way that will keep me going!  Moving forward!  I went out this morning and did 3.5 miles in 42 minutes.  Not a blazing pace but I am happy.  I jogged at least 3/4 of the distance.  I walked the first few blocks to warm up and felt the same pain in shins/calves as before but not as intense.  So, I started jogging and felt a little shaky but after 10 minutes I was feeling good and just kept jogging.  I turned around after 20 minutes and kept jogging back with a little uphill to make it interesting.  About half way back my lower back started to hurt so I jogged a little more and then went back to walking.  I walked at a normal pace for a minute and then picked up the pace to the “brisk” walk I had started with…  After getting home and sitting down and eating some eggs, my groin started to hurt along with the back and calves so I got a little worried.  This is something that has been a problem for me throughout my hockey years and I don’t want it to stop me here.  My body is telling me to ease into this thing!  OK, I can deal with that but I will not be discouraged…  After showering, making lunches, etc…I got in the car and drove to work.  Once alone with my thoughts and feelings in the car, I realized that I FELT FANTASTIC!!!!  Thank you BODY for giving me that last message!

I did take yesterday off to let the shins/calves rest.  If my groin talks to me tomorrow, I may go swim instead…  And, thanks everyone for all the support!

Project 42 – “Ronnie Lott” – Day 2

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Day 2:  I weighed myself last night with our new scale and I came in at 264.4 lbs.  Alarm went off at 5:00…hit snooze…then rescheduled for 5:30.  I got up, ate some string cheese and went out for a walk/jog.  Shins and calves hurt but I think it is from skiing at Squaw Valley on Saturday and Sunday.  Jogging made the shin pain go away so I jogged about 1/3 of the time trying to stay on the balls of my feet.  I did 40 minutes this time and felt good other than soreness in legs.  Maybe I will rest the legs tomorrow and do some ab work…